Suits U
Having finished The Last Of Us at Xmas and Dark Souls recently, I was losing interest in my Xbox360 and PlayStation 3. I’ve finally gone for a new console and ditched the big two in favour of a Wii U. What a console! The games are fun and refreshing and just the tonic I needed.

The last two days have been spent bashing through Mario Kart 8. I don’t know any other U owners and I’m not the best racer but if anyone wants to add me for some online sessions it would be much appreciated!Ratedrkstevo (NN ID) Add me!

Unreviewable
Been having a quick trawl through the Interweb and can’t seem to find any reviews of Watch Dogs and Wolfenstein: The New Order. Checked Metacritic, no reviews for both games. Any idea why this would be and do you think, as l do, this will become even more prevalent. This is nonsense and all versions of games should be reviewed. ls it publisher’s fault?Rob the Ranger (gamertag)
Currently playing: South Park and Pro Evolution Soccer (my one truly gaming addiction)
PS: What’s the chances of PES on PlayStation 4?

GC: We’re assuming you mean the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions. The publishers didn’t send them out for review, and to be honest we – and it sounds like most other sites – wouldn’t have had the time to review such long games twice in a row anyway. PES 2015 is due to be shown at E3.

Valid point
You reference Hugo from Ultra Street Fighter IV as a character from Street Fighter III, but you credit Poison and Rolento as being characters from Final fight originally. Was/isn’t Hugo originally from Final Fight as well? There is no real point to this email, just I always thought that he looked like a character from Final Fight as well, just wasn’t sure why you seem to gloss over that?WAYNEOS

GC: The character in Final Fight is called Andore and we’ve always understood him to be a different person, although looking online there seems to be some debate on that. Even so, his history is nowhere near as complicated as Poison…

A-level
A reader recently wrote in confused about the use of acronyms and initialisms by publishers. My personal bugbear is the term ‘AAA’ which is used by seemingly everyone from game developers and publishers out to analysts and the games press. My issue is what does the term even mean. I guess it supposed to be the equivalent of blockbuster used for film releases where in the past a film was so popular the queue would extend out of the cinema and around the block.

Although not really applicable nowadays the idea is understandable, a film that is a hit is a Blockbuster and major studios want a Blockbuster. With games does AAA refer to the budget spent, in reference to Activision spending half a billions dollars on Destiny, is it the quality of the experience or the amount a game sells. AAA is used interchangeably for all situations. I’d like to know where the term even came from, when was it first used and why does everyone use it.

Every time I see AAA I think of the energy efficiency labels stuck onto washing machines and fridge freezers grading the device A++++ and think how redundant that is when in general things are graded A to F. Can’t a game be A class quality or does it have to be AAA. Do B class games exist and if so what are they.John Ryan

PS: To the reader asking why anyone would buy a sports game I play tennis on a semi-regular basis, I own Top Spins 2, 3 and 4 and I enjoy watching tennis tournaments, currently the French Open and upcoming Wimbledon. When a tennis tournament is playing I would often want to play some tennis but for whatever reason might not be able to head down to a court that day. So I fire up the Xbox and enjoy playing a few rounds of virtual tennis, maybe even recreate an exciting match I’ve recently watched. I don’t play tennis games instead of actually playing the sport but as an accompaniment to it.

GC: It is a silly term we agree, and you have it pretty much right. It’s supposed to imply a much wider scale but we’ve never heard anyone refer to any other grade. Perhaps they do in marketing circles, which is where it’s from and where it’s meant to refer to a game of the highest importance and visibility – the term implies nothing about its quality.

Wonderful promise
A while back I asked for advice about which retailers deliver games on launch day and at the time I said I’d donate my Mario Kart 8 free game code in return for the advice. As promised, here is the code with one caveat; I went a step too far in the registration process and ended up choosing a game. So if a GC reader wants a free copy of The Wonderful 101 (it’s really not my cup of tea, despite really wanting to like it) then please give the code to a random GC person who wants it.

While we’re on the subject of Mario Kart 8, I’ve never played online gaming apart from a brief stint on Wii GoldenEye but I’ve been amazed at the size and friendliness of the GC community that exists due to Mario Kart. It’s brilliant. Add me if you want someone else to finish last in your races…Phil303 (NN ID) Add me!

Extra Kong
I’m absolutely loving Mario Kart 8 at the moment, but I notice (and I don’t necessarily consider this a flaw, especially as it made room for the joyous Koopa Kids) that the roster is very light on secondary Kongs.

Given the Mercedes downloadable content, do you think DLC packs of extra characters are likely, GC? There are enough Kongs about to make a decent set and there are a few absent Mario enemies that have been racers previously (Wiggler, Birdo, Dry Bones, etc.).TransmitHim (NN ID)

GC: We’d say it’s quite likely, yes. And although we can’t stand Rare’s Donkey Kong designs we’ll be more than happy to throw Bob-ombs at Diddy Kong all day long.

Best of the best
At the risk of sounding a bit Don King, I’d like to see if we can arrange a GC heavyweight champion session of online Mario Karting one day soon, wherein both Muffin Man and Rainy Terry are involved. Any online GC racers who have already had to sniff these men’s explosive exhausts will attest that they are both formidable racers of the highest calibre, and I’m sure it’s the showdown bout that GC fans around the world want to see.

We could call it ‘The Rumble in DK Jungle’, ‘The Rumble in the Ruins’, ‘The Rumble in the Grumble’, ‘The Royal Raceway Rumble’ or … oh, you get the idea. A degree of rumbling could take place somewhere, if these two titans of trackcraft are keen. Just imagine it. Could Terry rain on the parade or would it be a Muffin top?

Apparently, on such sporting occasions, it’s customary for the two main eventers taking part to be awarded a ‘purse’, which gets shared, so I’ve been to the local market and bought one. Fine Taiwanese stitching throughout, you can be assured. It smells like leather, and the rather disinterested salesman promised me it’s the brand Elizabeth Taylor swore by.

So to make it fair, and reward both men equally, I’ll cut said purse in half and send half each to both men. Do we have a deal? Can we get this thing on? Answers in the Underbox or via Miiverse please. And do I win £5?TheRunawayTrain
PS: Have GC been doing any of their incognito karting with any readers online? Or would that feel weird and be frowned upon, like one of the wardens having a fling with one of the inmates?

GC: We’ve been playing about an hour or so each night, although we probably won’t get another chance until after E3 now. Whoever wins this championship though do make sure to upload the video.

The real feeling
Couldn’t agree more with ar1speedboy about sports games. I play football regularly on a Sunday and last Sunday I scored a half volley from outside the penalty box. Everyone on the pitch congratulated me on the goal even the opposition. Scoring that goal was a million times better than all the goals that I scored on FIFA 14. I know people want to win with their favourite teams but wouldn’t you rather win in a real match even if you are not playing for your favourite team.Alek Kazam

Kinect-less world
I also don’t get the whole ‘why play football games when you can play it for real’ argument. Aside from surface visuals and stylings, playing a football game bears no real resemblance to playing the game in real life. You don’t even use your feet.

At least a driving game requires similar skills (you can even use a wheel) to the real thing. Also there’s the fact that most people would never get to play at that level for a real team in a real stadium, etc.

I don’t even like football or play football games but even I can appreciate why someone would like to play such titles. Strip away the graphics and footy games are no more or less abstract than any other genre.

On the subject of Kinect I have a couple of questions. If I’m playing a game that doesn’t use it and takes advantage of this ‘10%’ boost will I be able to use the camera function to record myself playing? Will I be able to use Kinect to switch my console off or switch to dashboard, etc.?

It seems like Microsoft really are turning their back on it altogether if they’re basically saying that when you playing certain games even it’s basic functions which aren’t connected to that game will be disabled.

As I’ve said before people recording and commentating on their playing sessions is becoming the norm (going by the amount of Minecraft videos and other game walkthroughs my son watches). It’d be strange if Microsoft restricted the use of Kinect as a tool for budding YouTubers.@PjDonnelli

GC: Our understanding is that the 10 per cent relates to bandwidth previously reversed for motion controls, not the more basic camera functions. In that sense it will still work much like the simpler PlayStation Camera.

Death ride
So apparently under that smiley, saccharine exterior lies a total psycho. Luigi might be a pleasant enough fella when he’s jumping platforms and stomping Koopas but put him behind the wheel of a Kart and he turns into a bit of a monster…sd134

Inbox also-rans
Don’t want to be a pain, but you missed the important part off my last email, about if people want to add me. Just got an Xbox One and am currently playing Watch Dogs and soon to be playing Worms.Steven3685 (gamertag) Add me!

GC: Sorry about that, we’re sure plenty of people will add you now.

RE: Drumbeatvideo. I too was getting constant connection errors on Mario Kart 8 the other night – dropping me out of online play every two races or so. Not sure if it was the servers or my own router. Having played every instalment except for the GameCube one, I’ve discovered how distinctly average at Mario Kart I am by playing online!half_empty80 (PSN/NN ID)

Whichever controller you press Start with on the Mario Kart 8 title screen becomes the player 1 controller.Garybob1 (NN ID)

How come Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL World Duel Carnival for the 3DS isn’t mentioned on your release date lists despite being announce a couple of weeks back that it will be out on the 26th/27th June?Leo Kearon

GC: To be honest we’ve never heard of it and it’s not on any of the usual retail sites. Is it an eShop download perhaps? Our release schedule is retail only (because the dates of digital downloads are never revealed with enough consistency to create a definitive list).

This week’s Hot Topic
It’s E3 next week, the biggest trade show of the year and the moment for which companies save up all their most import announcements, especially Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo.

So for this weekend’s Inbox we want to know what you hope will be revealed… and what you expect actually will. There are some fairly obvious guesses, such as Halo 5 and a Wii U Zelda, but what else do you think will be unveiled for the first time and how excited are you about it?

Who out of the big three do you expect will have the best E3 and what’s the best and worst case scenarios for each of them? Also, how much do you look forwards to E3 and how closely do you follow it? And do you think it has increased or decreased in importance over the years?